How to Make Smooth Transition from Being a Student to a Professional

Going through a transitional phase from a student to a professional is significant in your life. You should ensure that the transition is smooth and successful. Getting a job is momentous in your life. The moment you get a job, a number of inexplicable feelings hit you. Elated and excited, “Yes! I did it! I’m a professional now” feeling creeps in.
You go out with your close friends, family and your loved ones to celebrate your achievement. You would feel excited about your future and would be looking ahead eagerly. You are optimistic on your career in the years to come.

Once the celebration is gone, you are overwhelmed by so many questions “Oh my god! Can I perform?”, “Will I be able to adjust to the professional environment?”, “What if I can’t perform?” New responsibilities, corporate culture, new people you would be working and befriending – would certainly make you lose your nerve. However, the transition that is so important need not be one causing so much anxiety. Following a well-planned strategy and having a positive outlook, stepping into this new role can be an exciting and enjoyable experience.

Dress for your job
As a student, you are used to casual wear and would find it difficult accommodate into formal clothing, the basic prerequisite of any professional. It is time to come out of the mind set of feeling uncomfortable in formal dresses and start liking the formal attires.

Earning credibility
As a professional, you shoulder more responsibilities than you did in your student career. Here, in the job, it is very crucial that you earn credibility in the company. For this, you need to take scrupulous care while executing your responsibilities. Be aware that credibility is not an asset that can be earned over night. Days of good performance, day-in and day-out over a long period of time will earn you trust in the organization. Thus, you should be ready to work hard in a planned manner for an extended period of time.

Discipline and flexibility
In your student career, you had very less attention to discipline while performing your activities, occasionally getting rigid to accomplish things as you liked, with little consideration for others. However, once you are in a job, you need to be in sync with the goals of the company, where a group of people, serious and committed to it work hard in a disciplined manner, according to a planned strategy. Further, you need to be flexible and ready to turn to any task as assigned by the company. Thus, discipline and flexibility are significant to make you get used to the work environment.

Good work ethicWork ethic is a set of values based on the moral virtues of hard work and diligence. As a professional, it is really worthy for you to pursue. If you possess a good work ethic, the company would certainly value you as its asset. Thus, it’s very important that you develop a good work ethic. Developing a good work ethic is not a fun, but it is all about commitment, your values and your priorities.

Build the skills you need
As a student you gained enough theoretical knowledge on different issues. However, the job you joined calls for practical knowledge because you would be practically working over the issues. College is for experiment and work is for performance. Thus, you would certainly need to develop some skills other than the theoretical knowledge you possess. Make a personal SWOT analysis on yourself and focus on working your weaknesses and harnessing your strengths. This would build up your competence in your new role. Focus on productivity because at the end of the day, your work speaks about you. Make sure there is productivity in your work and try to make value addition to the company you are working at.

Keep a check on your attitude
In your student career you would have a care-free attitude – living life on your own terms. But once you are working at a company, you are a responsible person and you would be answerable to the people above you. So, it’s very important that you fine tune your attitude, such that it would set in to your new role. Always remember that you should never be part of a problem but you should always be part of the solution.

During the student life, you are seen as a junior player or an upcoming young budding talent in a cricket team. You will be given lots of guidance; you will have a lot of chances to perform. Failure is also not dealt so severely. But once you are a professional working in a company, you are seen a senior or established player in cricket team on whom lot of responsibilities rest. There is, of course, a lot of pressure to perform and there will be criticism and corrective measures as well, when you fail to live up to the expectations of the company. Hence, it is important that you adjust accordingly and raise your standards once you get into the professional mode.

Hence, if you take care of the above mentioned points, your student-to-professional transition would be successful and a pleasant experience.

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